That's what it was. The intent of the rule changes were to deal with the paulbots who've been disrupting the state conventions and trying to impose minority will on the majority of Republicans and conservatives. These paulbots hate the Romney wing of the party like many here do, but they hate the Santorum/Huckabee social conservative wing of the party even more. Paulbots are not conservatives, just libertarians who realize their 3rd party is never going to get them anywhere. They are attempting a hostile takeover and Republicans at the local and state level were slow to react, but now they have. These rules changes may have been overkill, but they were aimed at dealing with paultards who are never going to vote for the eventual nominee no matter who it was (unless it was Paul of course).
If it was Paulnuts, you should inform Mark Levin; he disagrees.
As for the “hate” of the Romney wing of the party, doesn’t it bother you that conservatives now sling that word around as loosely as liberals ever have? Trying to personalize conservatives’ rejection of liberalism is beneath us.
So if you are in fact a conservative who wants to cast a vote for the candidate who truly means to deliver on a promise to limit the size of government, cut federal spending, and safeguard the rights of the individual, to what party do you turn?
Not the Republicans, that's for sure. Some of them talk a good game, but what they actually do is a different story. That being the case, the voter who actually wants government off his back may as well stay home come election day.
This election is a done deal. Paul is older than dirt and this was probably his last campaign. This is not about Paul - that's a Shibboleth. This is about purging conservatives and making sure no more conservative presidential candidates slip through the GOP defenses like Reagan did. If these rules stand, the GOP will never nominate another conservative for president because the party machinery is completely owned and controlled by the left. Similar techniques have been employed by academia to purge themselves of the “right wingers.”